Anti-Muslim hate crimes have risen by 70% in UK, majority of victims female

[lego 44,165]

 

Islamophobic Britain: Where Muslim women are spat on, punched and covered in faeces

 

Muslim hate crime has soared by 70 per cent in London and majority of victims are female. Radhika Sanghani hears horrific stories of Islamophobia from British women and asks why they're being targeted

 

“I’ve been spat on in the street when I’ve worn my headscarf,” Sara Khan tells me.

 

“I’ve been called ‘Osama Bin Laden’s wife’. I’ve had people come right up to my face effing and blinding – even when I was pushing my six-month-old daughter in her pram".

 

Khan, who heads up anti-extremist organisation Inspire, is a female victim of Islamophobia in Britain.

 

“It’s shocking. You’re just minding your own business. It’s completely unprovoked," she adds. "It tends to happen after a terrorist incident, and you think, 'what have I done?' You feel angry you’re being associated with terrorists and extremists, but you also feel sad. It’s very dehumanising.”

 

Khan also tells me about one friend who had dog faeces put on her head, and another who was waiting at a bus stop, listening to her iPod and wearing a headscarf, when a man suddenly punched her. She was left with a black eye.

 

 

These are not isolated incidents. The Metropolitan Police has just released new statistics showing anti-Muslim hate crimes in Britain have risen by 70 per cent in the past year.

 

Tell Mama, an organisation that monitors Islamophobic attacks, says 60 per cent are directed at women, and happen on the street - as opposed to online.

 

Founder Fiyaz Mughal explains: “It’s because the more physical, abusive ones [attacks] are directed at visibility - which means the hijab (headscarf) and the niqab (full-face veil).”

 

It means that women become obvious targets for racists – something Malaika Kayani knows well. She converted to Islam around eight years ago, and tells me she’s regularly experienced Islamophobia where she lives in Nottingham.

 

“I’ve been on the bus and had people refuse to sit next to me when I’ve had my scarf on. I was walking with a friend once, when a man on a bike slammed his brakes and tried to ram it into us," she tells me.

 

"I’ve had people swearing at me and insulting me. You don’t need to always hear what they say because they look at you like you’re pure filth.”

 

The abuse became so bad it’s partly why she no longer wears a headscarf.

 

But scarves and veils aren’t the only reasons Muslim women are targeted more than men – another big factor is attitude.

 

Mussurut Zia, of the Muslim Women’s Network, explains: “Modesty in Islam isn’t just about the clothes you wear – it’s your behaviour and what you say as well. [If a Muslim woman was attacked] she wouldn’t raise her voice.

 

“She wouldn’t scream. She wouldn’t yell, she wouldn’t swear. They’re all the things you’d expect someone to do if they were in danger. But a Muslim woman wouldn’t because it’s not part of her faith.”

 

• People grab our veils, call us terrorists and want us dead': What it's really like to be a Muslim woman in Britain

 

As a convert this is something Kayani has had to learn.

 

She once swore back at a racist who insulted her, but immediately regretted her actions. Now she tries to react calmly whenever she’s a victim of hate crime, just like most of the Muslim women in her community.

 

“We know being seen as a Muslim in public will have its challenges,” she says. “So there is a little anger [about Islamophobia] but for the most part there’s an acceptance. Some women see it as a test of their faith.

 

“We Muslim women try to be modest and demure – not just in dress but behaviour. We’re less likely to respond.

 

"It’s about not shaming yourself in public.”

 

Mughal says that perpetrators know Muslim women won't react, especially if they’re fully covered up: “They believe there’s a sense of passivity around a woman wearing a niqab – that she won’t do anything or respond. But some women also say it’s a misogynistic targeting that comes from men.”

 

This is something Khan strongly believes – to the point where she thinks that authorities should classify Islamophobia against women as a form of violence against women:

 

"I've always felt there’s an overlap between Muslim hate crime and violence against women," she explains. "There’s definitely a gender element to it, with racists thinking, ‘It’s OK because she’s a woman and won’t say anything or do anything’.

 

“Women fear it. Whenever there’s a terrorist attack, you think, 'will I be attacked too?'”

 

This is the reality for thousands of Muslim women living in Britain. They are targets for racism purely because of their clothing, their demeanour and their gender.

 

All they can do is report any incidents that happen to them – and many don’t.

 

Mughal urges Muslim women to speak to the police if they are attacked: “Something can potentially be done, but there’s also a sense of unburdening yourself of that incident.”

 

But Zia thinks the only real way to tackle Islamophobia is by changing British perceptions towards Muslims.

 

“People think that women in full-face veils can’t speak English, but that’s simply not true. They think that women who wear the full-face veil are subservient. That they’re a danger; that they won’t interact with society.

 

“We all need to have some responsibility in dispelling these myths and stereotypes. We need to get rid of the fear before we can live in far more tolerant society.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/11848780/Islamophobic-Britain-Muslim-women-are-spat-on-and-covered-in-faeces.html

 

Cowards racists and xenophobes always attack women.

[Supersonic 49,376]

Disgusted but unfortunately not surprised.

[SlaeUrAnus 16,111]

Should not even attack women regardless. 

[Diamond Heart 4,400]

Not surprising to me. Everyone has started to blame everyones problems on immigrants and because of this, theres this strange 'im proud/real british' bull**** on the rise. 'Go back to your own country' is something i hear a lot when people talk about Muslims now, its horrible. Anyone who isnt white is automatically a threat to Britain apparently 

[craig 680]

Cowards racists and xenophobes always attack women.

If Muslims were like Sikhs, where the men wear the unusual headgear, I bet the gender stats would reverse.

Moreover, I think a lot of people assume Nijab = Extremist (not merely an ordinary Muslim), Likely a dubious conclusion, but I haven't seen it addressed in education campaigns.

[lego 44,165]

Cowards racists and xenophobes always attack women.

If Muslims were like Sikhs, where the men wear the unusual headgear, I bet the gender stats would reverse.

Moreover, I bet a lot of people assume Nijab = Extremist (not merely an ordinary Muslim), Likely a dubious assumption, but I haven't seen it addressed.

Sikhs and their temples were actually attacked in both UK and USA because xenophobes are often uneducated illiterate scum who connect their turban with something they saw in photos of Talliban.

Many Muslim men often wear recognizable muslim hats or long thobes and it's very obvious when someone looks Middle Eastern. Muslim women both white and middle-eastern/asian are attacked, even with their kids.

The assumption is wrong and doesn't justify attack on those women.

The clothes don't make person extremist.

[TiphEret 1,320]

Reminds me of some dark times. We really need to check ourselves, you can feel now that even "normal and not so racist" citizen are using a lot excuses used by xenophobic people. Today a french student at school told me that after all after reading Marine Le pen program she didn't find anything racist in it.... 

[Melech 9,900]

UK hates Jews and Muslims. Not really surprised. It is in most European countries like that where's Christian majority is

[NathanC 938]

Those poor women...Disgusting to hear but racist? Islam is a religion, not a race... 

[Better Day 5,766]

UK hates Jews and Muslims. Not really surprised. It is in most European countries like that where's Christian majority is

England hates anyone who isn't English. They are no "UK" 

[craig 680]

UK hates Jews and Muslims. Not really surprised. It is in most European countries like that where's Christian majority is

From what I've read, Jews feel safer in England than in most European countries, and the increase in anti-Semitism is coming, not from Christians, but from leftist anti-Israel types and from Muslims.

[lego 44,165]

From what I've read, Jews feel safer in England than in most European countries, and the increase in anti-Semitism is coming, not from Christians, but from leftist anti-Israel types and from Muslims.

Yeah we know what kind of sites you read.

Can you stop trying to hijack this thread tho?

You always downplay islamophobic hate-crimes, in many different threads, even when they end with death, but you're always so worried about antisemitism. Stop with hypocrisy.

And it's absolute lie that there are no antisemites among western christians. The biggest Christian supporters of Israel in USA are same time antisemitic.

 

"WND claimed that Hagee believed the Jewish people could be saved by God without abandoning Judaism and converting to Christianity. Apocalyptic Christian Zionist John Hagee censured the publication for spreading a lie and defensively clarified that he does indeed believe that the Jewish people are going to burn in Hell for all of eternity unless they abandon Judaism and convert to Christianity.

 

In short, Hagee firmly insisted that Christian Zionism is anti-Semitic, and that the reason CUFI so obsessively and blindly defends Israel is not because they care about Jews (who, in their mind, will face eternal damnation unless they renounce their religion and become Christians) but rather because they genuinely believe the world is on the verge of total annihilation and the Bible supposedly tells them they must do so."